Amongst all the fanfare and empowerment talk was the realisation that now, service providers must get down to the business of transforming their organisations into ones that view recipients of their services as paying customers. The shift to seeing people with disability as empowered, discerning customers impacts on every aspect of business and requires an understanding of how to cater to this emerging market. Service providers knew they had to turn their business models upside down, restructure their organisations, and put the person with a disability at the centre of it all - but how?

The introduction of the universal credit will change the face of benefit and welfare services for families all over the country. By making assumptions about digital literacy levels, the government is putting safety and security at risk.

The reformed benefits system, through which the different types of benefit currently provided by the state will be rolled into one single payment, is due to start taking effect in October, with the aim of moving the majority of benefits claimants to the new system by 2015-16. The policy is problematic not only because it takes responsibility away from the state and transfers it to the individual benefit claimant, but because it is based on a flawed understanding of digital literacy.

In less than a year since its creation, the Ninja Circus of the community of Mutitjulu, which sits in the shadow of Uluru, has seen teenagers perform in front of 85,000 AFL fans at the MCG and created a new sense of pride among residents.

The innovative program was to stop the acute drug, alcohol and petrol-sniffing problems reappearing in the small Aboriginal community of 150, which was once seen as one of the nation's most troubled. Elder Reggie Uluru said the program had kept children occupied and prevented them taking to the cannabis and alcohol that still materialise.

Charities should be as effective and efficient as they can be, and funders should prioritise the most effective and efficient charities. These are not controversial principles, but as everyone who works in the charity sector knows, it is not easy to turn these principles into practice. A major obstacle is the lack of clear measures of effectiveness and efficiency that tell chief executives, senior managers, and trustees, how their organisations are doing.

From the twitterati to lonely late-night-radio listeners, reaching the vast and diverse number of Australians affected by child sexual abuse is the biggest challenge facing the royal commission in its early stages, according to its chief executive Janette Dines.

In his homily at Mass celebrated with the residents of Lampedusa and the immigrants who have sought refuge there, Pope Francis spoke out against the “globalization of indifference” that leads to tragedies like the deaths of so many migrants seeking a better life.

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Catholic Social Services Australia represents a national network of 52 Catholic social service organisations that provide direct support to hundreds of thousands of people in need each year on behalf of the Catholic Church. Our agencies provide a diverse range of support from assisting women and children escaping family violence, housing and homelessness support, to mental health and disability services. They also work in partnership with Indigenous people, and offer support and services to people seeking asylum and those who are refugees.